A Very Spashley Christmas
by ohnice1
Summary: Spencer and Ashley Christmas fluff. Ashley's never had a good Christmas and Spencer is determined to change that. One-shot/complete.


Title: A Very Spashley Christmas

Rating: PG

Summary: Spashley Christmastime fluff. Woot!

Feedback: Yes, please. You're looking at a feedback whore! Please read & review!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Too bad…

Author's Note: I'm not sure what kind of timeline the show is running on, but for the purposes if this story I'm going to pretend that "Friends With Benefits" occurred right before Christmas break would have started for King High. It just makes my life easier. Also, anything written 'like this' is a character's thoughts.

After a few awkward post-almost-kiss days, Spencer and Ashley finally found their friendship settling back into its old, comfortable (if you could call them that) patterns. The last week of school had now come and gone, so the students of King High were free for two glorious weeks of Christmas break. Currently, Spencer and Ashley were trekking through the parking lot after surviving their last finals of the semester.

"What am I going to do with myself for two weeks?" Spencer pondered, garnering a look of shock from her companion.

"Are you serious? Are you COMPLAINING!" Ashley questioned.

"Uh, no. But I do have to admit, I get pretty bored on long breaks."

"Well that was before me. Now, you get to spend your time keeping me entertained!" Ashley chided, linking her arm with her friend's.

Spencer raised an eyebrow. "I can hardly wait," she deadpanned as they arrived at the car. "I still have to finish my stupid shopping."

"Are you kidding? Christmas is in 3 days!"

"Yeah, well, I procrastinated a little. Are you telling me you're done?"

"Oh as if! But it's not like I have to buy for anybody but you," Ashley groaned.

"Hey, I thought we had agreed not to do gifts!" Spencer interjected.

"Oh, like I was going to let that stop me. Anyway, I mean, is it really necessary that I give something to my missing-in-action parents? I mean, I guess I could get Madison a lump of coal," she chuckled.

Spencer giggled too, adding, "Or Aiden some lesbian porn." Ashley and Spencer had found themselves dealing with the awkward situation from the previous week with jokes galore.

"I'm sure he's already got plenty of that!" Ashley was more than willing to joke right back; she still felt weird about the tension that was more or less resolved, but never discussed, between herself and Spencer after the "kiss incident" as she'd come to call it.

"Ew…that's really all I can say about that!" Spencer fake gagged.

Okay, new subject. "So, Spencer, what do YOU want for Christmas?"

"Umm…" Spencer stuttered, at a loss for which Christmas wish she should actually vocalize. What do you say when, upon hearing this question, you immediately start singing "All I Want for Christmas Is You" in your head?

"Oh come on, it can be anything from anyone. You know you want something," Ashley prodded. 'Give me something good!'

"Well, I really want a pony, a million dollars, a fire truck--"

"Fine, don't play my game. Use your shield of sarcasm!"

"Fine Ash, what do you want?"

Two can play her game. "All I want for Christmas, is yoooooou!" she sang. 'In a bow under my tree,' she added to herself.

Spencer chuckled. "See, I don't hear you giving any serious answers either!"

"Well that wouldn't really be fair, would it?" she argued as she pulled the car into Spencer's driveway. "So, you want to hang tonight?"

"Ugh, I can't," Spencer groaned. "We're going to some dinner with…someone. As you can tell, I really care."

"Suck!" That party Aiden had invited her to now sounded slightly appealing--but only slightly.

"I know. But…you could go shopping with me tomorrow," Spencer offered.

"Using me for a ride?"

"Shut up, no. You know I want you to come."

"Okay, I can do that."

"Great," Spencer grinned, collecting her stuff and moving to get out of the car. "Pick me up at ten? I mean, I'm sure I'll talk to you before that, but, you know, whatever."

"Ten!" Ashley exclaimed; it was not a favorite pastime of hers to wake up before noon on days when she didn't have school.

"Hello! Do you want to get stuck in ridiculous crowds?"

"Honey, it's Christmas Eve Eve tomorrow, it's going to be a zoo anyway!"

Christmas Eve Eve? Leave it to Ashley to make up a name for the day before the day before a holiday. She would. "See you at ten!" Spencer yelled as she approached her house.

"Fine!" Ashley shouted. "But I make no promises regarding my mood at such an ungodly hour!" Pulling out of the driveway, she thought to herself that she really could care less what time of day it was; at least she wasn't going to be sitting around her house by herself.

Eight forty-five A.M. rolled around a lot earlier than Ashley was expecting, and she was currently thanking her lucky stars she didn't go to that random party with Aiden. 'A hangover would make this so much worse,' she thought to herself, rolling out of bed and trudging to the bathroom.

"I hate shopping!" she shouted to no one in particular, turning on the shower and preparing herself for hours of dealing with angry mobs of frenzied, procrastinating shoppers.

Over at casa de Carlin, Spencer was experiencing the same misery. Even though she knew it had to be done, that didn't make the process any more enjoyable. She had learned the night before that the rest of her family had already finished shopping, which made her all the more thankful that she had secured Ashley as her shopping victim--er, buddy. After showering and dressing, she headed downstairs to the kitchen.

"Morning sweetheart!" Paula squealed.

'She WOULD be chipper,' Spencer mentally deadpanned. "Morning," she grumbled.

"Are you finishing up your shopping today?" Paula inquired, which earned a snicker from Glen.

"Have fun with that," he added. "I'm so glad I'm done. I don't even wanna know what the mall is going to be like today!"

Spencer rolled her eyes. Typical. "Shut up, Glen. Yes, mom, I'm heading out to the mall with Ashley in just a minute." She offered the last part with hesitation, noticing her mother immediately avert her eyes at the mention of Ashley.

"Oh. Are you sure you don't want me to take you?" she offered, hopeful.

"No, it's okay! Besides, you can't see what I'm getting you, that would ruin the fun!" As soon as she finished speaking, a horn blew outside. "Oh, there's Ash. Bye mom!"

"Are you going to be back for dinner?" Paula called after her hurrying daughter, but received no response.

"Morning sunshine!" Spencer chirped as she climbed into Ashley's car.

"Morning."

"Aw, is somebody not awake yet?" she teased in her best baby-talk voice.

"No. And I'm more than slightly bitter about the fact that I don't even need to go shopping, yet here I am. But that's okay! I can suck it up in the name of friendship."

"Great. But don't you worry about that lack of Christmas spirit, because I brought the cure!" Moments later, the sounds of "Jingle Bell Rock" were filling the car.

"Oh. My. God." Ashley groaned, leaning her head on the steering wheel. 'This is going to be an interesting…long…day.'

Nearly seven hours and a whole lot of complaining later, Spencer finally felt that she had gotten everything she needed.

"You're sure now? 'Cause we've already spent 7 hours here, what's one or two or eight more if you need more stuff…"

Weighed down with bags and oblivious to Ashley's sarcasm, Spencer was still feeling pretty chipper. "Nope, I'm done! Let's go; I think I heard my mom griping about being home for dinner when I was leaving this morning."

"Oh, thank God. Let's walk fast, I don't want to get sidetracked!" Grabbing a few of Spencer's bags, Ashley speed-walked toward the exit, only to slow down momentarily. "Oh, who am I kidding. All we have too look forward to on the other side of those walls is more people and more traffic."

After walking up and down several aisles, the girls finally located Ashley's car.

"I can't believe we lost the car!" Spencer huffed.

"Well, after seven hours, those things can happen," Ashley snickered, loading up the bags she had been carrying.

"Very true. Okay, let's get the hell out of here."

"Amen." Cranking up the car, the sounds of "Christmas in Dixie" came through the speakers. "Oh my gosh, Spencer, what is this crap!"

"What? It's a good song!"

"I don't know what kind of Christmas things you do in Ohio, but I refuse to listen to this song. And, because it is my car, I get to make the final decision."

"Fine, fine!" Spencer changed the song, and "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was next, forcing her to suppress a giggle as she thought about trying to tell Ashley her Christmas wish the previous day. "So if my Ohio traditions are so weird, you're going to tell me what you people out here do."

"Excuse me, I believe you are now a part of the 'you people' you speak of! Anyway, I don't know, it's the same. We just don't listen to cheesy country music as part of our celebration," she chuckled.

"Christmas without cold is weird. You're so deprived! I just can't believe you'll never see a white Christmas. It sucks!"

"Yeah, well, Christmas isn't exactly my favorite holiday, so I can't say I'm all broken up about it."

Realizing that Ashley was probably referring to her family, or lack thereof, Spencer decided to do something to change that. "Well, it can be now!"

"What?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow I'm going to come over and you're going to have a real Christmas…er, a day early. And minus the eggnog, because I hate that stuff."

The idea sounded nice, but Ashley was doubtful. "You really think you're going to be able to pull that off? Getting away from your mother on Christmas Eve of all days?"

"Definitely. In my family, Christmas Eve consists of all the guys watching pro football and my mom wasting away wrapping presents, leaving me to sit in my room on the computer or doing other boring solitary activities. Then, we have pizza for dinner. So, if she says no, well…I'm just going to have to fight her on it, because it's not like I'm going to be skipping out on any sort of family activity."

"Okay, okay. So you're coming over tomorrow and we're having pseudo-Christmas fluffy bunny fun. I'm in."

Spencer smiled. "Good. It's a date."

Christmas Eve

Around noon, Ashley assessed that it was finally time to get out of bed. Oddly enough, she had yet to hear from Spencer, which she found worrisome. Checking her cell phone, however, she saw that she was wrong: she had a missed called and a text message that said "WAKE UP AND CALL ME!" Oops. 'How did I not hear that! Guess I should call her.'

"Hello?" Ew. It was Paula. 'Not the first thing I want to hear when I wake up in the…afternoon.'

"Hi Mrs. C, it's Ashley. Can I please speak to Spencer?" Maybe if she were polite she wouldn't have to play twenty questions.

"Hold on." Ashley was sure that Paula was either rolling her eyes, grumbling, contemplating hanging up, or all of the above.

"Hello?" It was Spencer; that's more like it.

"You rang?"

"FINALLY you're awake! Geez. I was about to break into your house to check on you!"

"What? It's only noon!" Ashley defended. She thought her sleeping habits were widely known and accepted by now.

"Fine, fine. So when am I coming over?"

Oh, the pseudo-Christmas "date." "Um, in an hour?"

"Sounds good."

"Do you need me to come pick you up?"

"No, it's okay. I bribed Glen into taking me."

"Bribed him? How?"

"I wrapped all the presents he's giving. He's wrapping paper-challenged."

"Hey, don't hate. I couldn't wrap a box to save my life."

Spencer giggled. "Sorry, sorry. So, see you in an hour?"

"Don't be late, it's a very important date!" Ashley joked, earning her another laugh.

"See you in a little while."

"Bye!" With that, Ashley headed off to shower, idly pondering her mother's whereabouts.

Nearly an hour later, Ashley had showered and dressed and was now sitting on the couch looking out the window, awaiting Spencer. She had learned through a note that her mother and her man candy of the week were staying at a hotel until Christmas afternoon and that she shouldn't expect her. 'Figures,' she had grumbled to herself. She lost herself in her thoughts about her mother and father, who she'd yet to even hear from, for a while. She wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there staring out the window, but suddenly she heard the doorbell without even having seen Glen's car or Spencer walking up. 'My parents are making me crazy and they're not even here!' she thought as she made her way to the door.

"Hi!" Spencer chirped, encircling Ashley in a big hug as soon as the door was opened wide enough for her to do so.

"Hi," Ashley mumbled, her mouth smothered in Spencer's shoulder. Why was she wearing a backpack?

"Merry Christmas!" Spencer released Ashley from their bear hug, allowing her to breathe freely once again, and they made their way into the living room.

"It's not Christmas, nerd. It's Christmas Eve."

"Don't be silly Ash. It is Christmas! Well, for us anyway. Calendars are just details."

Ashley rolled her eyes and smirked. Spencer's "sweet and innocent but really sweet and innocent" demeanor was quite endearing at times. "Whatever you say, Spence!"

Looking around the room, Spencer noticed something different: the entire room was covered in Christmas decorations, topped off with a large Christmas tree in the corner of the room. "Whoa, wait a second. When did all these decorations go up? I thought your mom wasn't into Christmas."

"She's not. It's just some psycho thing she does. She doesn't decorate weeks before Christmas like normal people, she goes into a frenzy on Christmas Eve Eve and puts up every decoration she has. This is the result. I think she wants her man candy to think she's domestic."

So that was why Ashley had named "Christmas Eve Eve." There were easily more decorations in Ashley's living room than in Spencer's whole house, although, Spencer reasoned, that made sense since Ashley's house was far larger than her own. "Gotcha. Well, it looks nice. Where is your mom anyway?"

"Hotel. Flavor of the week. Got a note this morning." There was obvious disdain in her voice, but she didn't pause for Spencer's input--it was obviously a sensitive subject. "So, what's in the bag?"

"Surprises!"

"Surprises? I don't like surprises," she countered, reaching for the bag.

"Tsk tsk! You'll see as the day goes on. I can show you one thing now, though…" Spencer trailed, reaching into the bag but not allowing Ashley to see inside.

Upon seeing what Spencer had grabbed, Ashley giggled. "Christmas cookies? We're BAKING!"

"Yes, hello! This is one of the best parts of Christmas. You know, besides presents and cheesy music. Now come on!"

Suddenly, Ashley found herself being pulled into the kitchen. 'I think it's safe to say I've never baked anything. Is this some sort of weird Midwestern thing?'

Baking cookies turned out to be an interesting experience. She wasn't quite sure how, but even with the pre-made cookie dough Ashley felt like she even had it in her hair.

'Note to self: do not leave Ashley unattended whilst cooking,' Spencer thought to herself, holding back laughter. This, however, did not go unnoticed.

"What are you smirking about?"

Since she had been caught, Spencer allowed herself to release her pent up laughter. Once she regained composure, she attempted to explain herself. "I'm sorry, but you are just…baking inept!" Then, she erupted into laughter again.

"Hey! That's not funny. I don't have a mom that wants to bake cookies and brownies and bond with me!" Ashley pouted, throwing a cookie dough scrap at her heckler.

"I know, I know, sorry," she offered, trying as hard as she could to stop laughing.

"It's okay. I'd rather have you pop my baking cherry than my invisible mother," Ashley joked, not afraid to laugh at herself. Not surprised that Ashley also put baking on the same level as sex, Spencer erupted into laughter yet again.

'Maybe Christmas isn't THAT bad…' Ashley thought to herself. 'Maybe.'

When the cookies finished baking (and the girls celebrated that they hadn't burned to a crisp), Spencer revealed the next part of her pseudo-Christmas plan.

"A Christmas Story?" Ashley questioned, examining the DVD case. "Is this the 'You'll shoot your eye out!' movie?"

"Heh, yes. You've seen it?"

"No, but they always show it for like three days straight on TV, so I feel like I've heard that line about a million times."

"This is a Christmas classic! Come on, come on, on with the Christmas."

Once again, Ashley was being pulled around, this time to the overly-decorated and pine needle-scented living room to watch the movie. Plopping down on the end of the couch, she allowed Spencer to take care of loading the movie and locating the remote controls (which, she figured, could be anywhere--she rarely sat in this room, as it was usually occupied by her mother). Once she had taken care of that, Spencer lied down on the couch, putting her head in Ashley's lap.

"You're going to love this movie!" Spencer was grinning from ear to ear, starting the movie.

Ashley was pretty sure her mouth might have been agape with shock. 'If I can pay attention…'

As the movie continued, Ashley found herself growing increasingly disinterested. It was a cute enough movie, but with Spencer in such close proximity she was finding it rather difficult to focus on a kid whining about a B.B. gun. Feeling daring, she began to play with Spencer's hair. When she saw the blonde smile up at her, the knot that had tied itself in her stomach loosened and she once again attempted to watch the movie.

When the movie ended, Spencer shut off the television and sat up. "Well, what did you think?"

"It was okay. That kid was sort of obnoxious, but the thing with the lamp was funny."

"Okay! That movie's a classic!" Spencer teased.

Ashley snickered. She wasn't sure that she had paid attention to enough of the movie to assess its quality, but she was determined to keep that fact to herself.

"Sorry!" she offered. Changing the subject, she said, "So, what've you got next in your bag of tricks?" This earned her Spencer sticking her tongue out.

"It's okay, I understand that you didn't like my choice in Christmas films. Whatever," she pouted.

"Oh, come on, I did like it! I think I would've appreciated it more if I saw it when I was younger, like you did. Don't be mad!" she reasoned, hugging Spencer from the side.

Spencer mentally snickered. 'So predictable,' she thought. "Forgiven. But don't hate on my movie taste, that's a sensitive subject," she joked.

"Deal."

Looking at the clock, Spencer noticed that it was just past four o'clock. "Well, I imagine it's about time we start cooking!" she decided, hopping up from the couch.

Ashley raised an eyebrow. "Cooking? You brought food in your backpack and it's just been sitting there?"

"No way, don't be silly. Surely you've got something in your kitchen that we can use. Come on!" And again, Ashley found herself being pulled around by Spencer. In her own house. Somehow, that seemed off, but who was she to complain?

About an hour later, the girls found themselves with salad, mashed potatoes from a bag of flakes, and chicken.

"Okay, I know this is hardly a traditional Christmas meal, but it's not my fault your mother refuses to keep food on hand. I think we should consider ourselves lucky that we found that chicken in the freezer, much less lettuce that was still green!"

"Very true. Who am I to complain? I think I ate McDonald's on Christmas last year…alone," she mumbled the last bit to herself, but did not linger on the subject. "So, are you going to say the blessing or shall I?"

Surprised that Ashley had even brought it up, Spencer offered to do it herself, knowing that Ashley probably only offered as a courtesy. She actually hadn't been planning on saying one, as it was hardly Ashley's thing, but this was fine, too. "Dear God, please bless this food that we've been given and watch over us as we celebrate this wonderful holiday in your name. Thank you for the gifts we've been given and the company we keep, and let us enjoy those we love. Amen."

Ashley could have sworn she saw Spencer look at her at the end of the blessing.

After dinner, Ashley was eagerly anticipating finding out what Spencer had left in her bag.

"Just leave the dishes in the sink," Ashley instructed. "I'll do them later…or leave them for my mom, whichever comes first."

Spencer cocked an eyebrow and laughed, but did as she was told. "Okay…so what do you want to do now?"

"I don't know, you're the brains behind the plans of the day. Whatcha got left in your bag o' secrets?"

"Hmm…" she trailed.

"What? You don't know?"

"No, I'm just not sure if you've earned it yet or not."

"Excuse me?" Ashley faked offense.

"Yeah, you did rag on the movie I picked out. And you threw cookie dough at me. You're on the naughty list."

"The naughty list!" she exclaimed. "Hmph!" And, crossing her arms, she put on the best fake pout she could, knowing that Spencer would cave eventually.

"Well…I suppose you have done enough OTHER nice things for me to make up for it…like listening to me bitch and moan about being confused about liking girls, forgiving me for getting smashed and missing your concert, being my best friend…"

Did she just mention her liking girls? 'Wow, she hasn't brought THAT one up in a while,' Ashley mused. Maybe Spencer was finally feeling a little more comfortable, or even making up her mind. Ashley grinned. "Okay, well then let's see it!" And with that, she took off for the living room, Spencer closely on her heels.

"Okay I know we said we weren't going to do gifts, but I couldn't help--"

Ashley cut her off. "Wait, you got me something?"

"Well, it's not much, but…yes." Spencer sounded unsure, perhaps worried.

"Time out. Be right back," Ashley said, taking off up the stairs. Moments later she returned, hands behind her back. "I'm actually kind of glad, 'cause I got you something too. Well, not so much got as made, but, you know, whatever."

This brought a smile to the blonde's face. She then reached into her bag, pulling out two things. One, Ashley could see, was sort of squarish and wrapped up in tissue paper; the other, Spencer put on the couch behind her back without her being able to get a good look at it. "Here. It's nothing much," she said, handing the item to her friend.

Unwrapping it, she found a simple plastic frame with a picture of herself and Spencer in there--one of her favorite pictures of the two of them. The best part, however, was that Spencer had decorated the frame with palm tree stickers and various shapes painted on (the most interesting of which, in Ashley's opinion, were the hearts). "I love it. Thank you," she said genuinely, hugging the girl. "Well, this is for you," Ashley offered, handing Spencer her gift.

Ashley hadn't wrapped it or anything, but Spencer didn't care. It was simply a burned CD, with the song listing printed on the front of the case, followed by "Love always, Ash xoxo." It was all her favorite songs, and a few she didn't know. Opening the case, she found that the label on the CD was a picture of the two of them--the same picture she'd put in Ashley's frame. 'Great minds,' she thought. "Thank you."

Ashley appeared shy, glancing toward the floor. "You're welcome."

"I did get you one more thing…" Spencer revealed.

'Oh crap, I didn't get her anything else!' Ashley panicked.

Reaching behind her, Spencer grabbed whatever else it was she had removed from her bag earlier. "Close your eyes," she instructed. Ashley did as she was told. Spencer scooted closer. "Okay, you can open them."

When Ashley opened her eyes, she noticed that not only had Spencer scooted far closer to her on the couch, but she was holding something above her head in her hand.

Mistletoe.

"Merry Christmas," Spencer whispered, leaning toward Ashley.

"Merry Christmas," Ashley managed to get out. Was she serious? She was pretty sure she might have been shaking.

"It's okay," Spencer again whispered.

When their lips met, no more words were spoken. Maybe Christmas wasn't so bad after all.

Thanks for reading. Feedback is our friend! Please, please leave me a review!


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